The Teacher Academic Buoyancy Scale: Is it possible to keep TABS on students' academic buoyancy?

Year 2018, , 659 - 667, 16.12.2018

Diarmuid Verrier Scott Johnson Lisa Reidy

https://doi.org/10.21449/ijate.463871

Cited By: 4

Abstract

Academic buoyancy (AB) is the ability to overcome minor academic setbacks. However, although it seems as though teachers would be well placed to comment on this characteristic in students, no teacher-report measure of AB exists. This study evaluates a teacher-report version of the widely used, student-report, Academic Buoyancy Scale (ABS). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the unifactorial nature of the Teacher Academic Buoyancy Scale (TABS), and the scale showed excellent internal reliability. However, while there was some evidence for the criterion-related validity of the TABS, it showed very poor convergent validity with the ABS. It also correlated better with academic achievement than should theoretically be the case for a measure of AB. Further, AB estimates from the two measures were moderated by demographic characteristics: teachers rated girls and those not facing adversity as more buoyant, but the opposite was the case for self-reports. In sum, this study suggests a significant disjunction between teacher- and self-reports of AB, and that teacher estimates of AB are likely to be affected by salient, non-AB-related, student characteristics. 

Keywords

Academic, Buoyancy, Resilience, Teachers, Scale

The Teacher Academic Buoyancy Scale: Is it possible to keep TABS on students' academic buoyancy?

Abstract

Academic buoyancy (AB) is the ability to
overcome minor academic setbacks. However, although it seems as though teachers
would be well placed to comment on this characteristic in students, no
teacher-report measure of AB exists. This study evaluates a teacher-report
version of the widely used, student-report, Academic Buoyancy Scale (ABS).
Confirmatory factor analysis supported the unifactorial nature of the Teacher
Academic Buoyancy Scale (TABS), and the scale showed excellent internal
reliability. However, while there was some evidence for the criterion-related
validity of the TABS, it showed very poor convergent validity with the ABS. It
also correlated better with academic achievement than should theoretically be
the case for a measure of AB.  Further, AB
estimates from the two measures were moderated by demographic characteristics:
teachers rated girls and those not facing adversity as more buoyant, but the
opposite was the case for self-reports. In sum, this study suggests a
significant disjunction between teacher- and self-reports of AB, and that
teacher estimates of AB are likely to be affected by salient, non-AB-related,
student characteristics. 

Keywords

Academic, Buoyancy, Resilience, Teachers, Scale

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